Vintage cart sale will help Great Ryburgh church

The sale of a restored vintage tumbril will help boost the funds needed for vital improvements to Great Ryburgh parish church.

St Andrews Church in the village near Fakenham currently only has a portable toilet. Churchwarden Anne Prentis explained that not only is the church very active, but they receive many visitors, especially for First World War commemorations, and pilgrims stopping off on the way to Walsingham.

A fundraising campaign has been launched to restore the old gas house and to build brand new accessible toilet and storage facilities. With around £70,000 already raised of the estimated £112,000 cost of the build, and village residents donating bricks and tiles and other materials, it is hoped that the sale of the tumbril will go a long way to achieving the total.

The tumbril, or open cart, was restored by local craftsman Peter Trent, with the help of carpenter Terry Yarham from Little Ryburgh and blacksmith Nigel Barnett from Fransham. Peter explains on St Andrews church website how the restoration came about:

“Back in 2015, a local lady told me about a cart or wagon lying derelict nearby that had a Great Ryburgh Farmers' Foundry plate on it. She had been told in the past that she could have it for her late father to restore. This never happened but the cart was still there. I arranged to go and see it later that day and indeed found a once red painted Farmers' Foundry tumbril on pneumatic tyres looking in a rather sorry state but with definite potential for restoration. The kind lady said she would make enquiries to see if the cart was still going begging, and before the week was out I was told that if I could get it out of the field I could have it.”

There were no wooden components sufficiently structurally sound to re-use, but they have provided excellent templates in order to re-create the cart from new timbers. Much of the metal work was still in usable condition and has been cleaned down and painted. There were many different hues of red remaining on all parts of the cart, but the red chosen for the restoration is in accord with the memory of those that remember products that came out of the Farmers' Foundry.

The completed cart had its first outing on Saturday February 18, towed behind a 1947 Field Marshall tractor, 18 months after restoration started.

To make an offer for the tumbrel go to the contact page on the website or call Mrs Prentis on 01328 829413.